


Then All Anxiety Was at an End

by radondoran



Category: Phineas and Ferb
Genre: Angst, Backstory, Canon Related, Gen, Illness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-04
Updated: 2012-09-04
Packaged: 2017-11-13 13:56:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/504225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radondoran/pseuds/radondoran
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When he looked back on it later, Heinz would barely remember the morning he returned from the ocelots.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Then All Anxiety Was at an End

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Ocelots and the Little Boy](https://archiveofourown.org/works/503141) by [radondoran](https://archiveofourown.org/users/radondoran/pseuds/radondoran). 



> This is sort of an epilogue to my story "The Ocelots and the Little Boy," but it can probably be read on its own. All you need to know is that Heinz lived with ocelots and then returned to the Doofenshmirtz estate, and hey, that's canon. (Oh, and also he learned to speak ocelot while he was away.)

When he looked back on it later, Heinz would barely remember the morning he returned from the ocelots. He threw up his breakfast not ten minutes after eating it. It might have been the refined sugar sitting ill in his stomach after months of boar meat and doonkelberries, but then he started to shiver in the hot bath and couldn't stop. He staggered towards his bedroom, more exhausted than he had ever felt in his life, even after long nights of lawn-gnoming. It wasn't until days later that he remembered to be surprised that they'd left his bed exactly where it had been. Now he barely had the strength to pull on his nightgown--still in the dresser--before crawling into bed and falling into a deep, uneasy sleep.

Heinz still remembers fragments from this time. Balloony, tied to the bedpost, bobbing ominously, looking at him sometimes with concern and sometimes with a harsh look of accusation in his marker eyes. The town doctor (why had they called the doctor?) arguing with Mama. Papa, now and then poking his helmeted head in around the door. ("How inconvenient," he said once. "He comes back only to die on us." "Don't say such things," said Mama gently.)

And Mama. When he thinks back on it, Mama is the only constant thing he remembers. Mama sitting in a chair beside his bed, tucking the blankets up around his chin when his teeth began to chatter, wiping his forehead with a wet cloth when he felt his brains burning up from the inside out. Mama holding him down as he thrashed and screamed and yowled at her in ocelot; Mama cooing softly to him as he wept in German. And in between, the click-click-click of Mama's knitting needles, ticking off each second.

When Heinz woke up on the third day, he was surprised for a moment to find himself in his old bedroom. Morning light streamed in the window. There was a smell of antiseptic in the air. Balloony still bobbed on the bedpost, but now he looked relieved. And Mama was still knitting, a small pink dress coming together in her tiny hands.

Heinz turned towards her. "Mama?" he asked.

Mama looked at him without stopping her knitting. "Good morning, son," she said. "Your fever broke last night. I was wondering how much longer you would sleep, you lazybones."

Heinz tried to sit up, and fell back onto his pillow. His head was clear at last, but the rest of him was still weak.

"It's all right," said Mama. "The zotzenfruit garden will survive one more day without its favorite lawn gnome. Don't get up. There's a pot of gruel on the stove. I'll go get you some breakfast."

She came to the end of her row, put down her knitting, and left the room.

Heinz turned to Balloony. "I'm home," he said wonderingly. "How did you know to come here, Balloony?"

Balloony gave him an indulgent look.

"Oh, I guess I did tell you where they lived. But how did you know that--that they'd take me back? I told you about..."

Mama came back into the room with a tray on which sat a bowl of warm oat gruel, a glass of goat's milk, and a small dish of fresh doonkelberries. She set it down on her chair and helped Heinz sit up against the pillow and the headboard. "Were you talking to someone, Heinz?" she asked.

"Just--just Balloony," said Heinz. "Oh, you haven't been formally introduced! Mama, this is my friend Balloony. Balloony, this is my mama."

Mama smiled and bowed. "Nice to meet you, Balloony."

She handed Heinz the tray, and he managed to balance it on his lap. He picked up the spoon on his own, and began to eat the gruel with a sudden fierce appetite. After everything he had been through, even this watered-down grain tasted delicious.

"Not too fast, now," said Mama. She sat and picked up her knitting again, click-click-click. After a minute or so she spoke again. "You came home at a good time, Heinz. Your papa and I have some good news."

Heinz swallowed a bite of gruel. "What?" he asked.

Mama finished another row of knitting and held up the pretty pink dress for Heinz to admire. "You are going to have a new baby sister," she said.

Heinz grinned. "Mama, that's wonderful!" A baby sister! A sister to play with, to teach, to show around--someone who would look up to him for a change. A friend. An ally. A baby sister. Heinz couldn't wait.

When Heinz had finished his breakfast, Mama took the tray. "You get some rest, my son," she told him. "You are back on lawn gnome duty tomorrow. Our zotzenfruit has been vulnerable to witches' spells for too long."

"Yes, Mama." The door shut behind her. Heinz lay back again on the soft sheets, relishing the warmth of the blankets, the light through the window-glass, all the comforts of civilization that he had missed. He looked up at Balloony, upside-down from this angle, and smiled.

"You know what, Balloony? I think things are going to be good from now on."


End file.
